Durant on losing Harden: ‘We were victims to the business’

This is a little tweet conversation from Monday night between Kevin Durant and ESPN the Magazine’s Chris Palmer that started because Palmer was doing that thing where he tweets random arbitrary positional power rankings and such:

1) He’s right about the first part. I’ve written about the same thing before, how the league’s effort to create more competitive balance through a more punitive tax really just hurt its small market poster boy. The Thunder tried to keep Harden and they didn’t “choose” Serge Ibaka. It just didn’t work out in the end and newsflash, they’re still really good. The mistake the Thunder might have made was trading Harden when they did, but even at that time, it was justifiable.

2) He’s right about the second part, too. The guys in Miami made it work for a couple of reasons, one definitely being the previous collective bargaining agreement, the other being that they worked their contracts out so as to save as much money as possible. All three took just a little bit less, which is something Harden was never willing to do. As KD outlined here:

@lakeshowAK7 they were all free agents, I got mine before Russ, Russ before jH..we didn't know money would be a problem down the line

"I saw a report that Dwight Howard was going to go to the Houston Rockets and he was leaving Aspen to tell the Lakers he was not going there," Parsons said. "So I was like, 'Cool.' I was hyped. I started running around and then I go to the beach.

"I come back, and then I saw on Twitter that sources say that 'Dwight Howard has changed his mind.' And I swear to God, a tropical storm hit Cabo as that happened. It was the worst day of my life. Then two hours later he told [Lakers GM] Mitch Kupchak he wasn't coming back."

@DXL@Lambchop Haka Sure, but youve spent 17,546,984 words in teh last two weeks alone trying to send home this point which many understood long before hand. Its basically character assasination at this point. Is it his small head that troubles you so?

@rednuht@Hasheem To-Beat-Ya yea its all just rabble rabble crap until he gets his opportunity. which as history has shown players with the Thunder tend to make the most of their opportunities to play ala serge, harden and Reginald

@Lasers@BallSoHard "I saw a report that Dwight Howard was going to go to the Houston Rockets and he was leaving Aspen to tell the Lakers he was not going there," Parsons said. "So I was like, 'Cool.' I was hyped. I started running around and then I go to the beach.

@Lasers@BallSoHard "I told them what they needed to prepare for with the pitch," Parsons said. "I told them what he thought about our team and what his concerns were. I was in the middle of Dwight and the Rockets, just kind of bringing them together."

@Lasers@BallSoHard "I think I had a big impact," Parsons said at USA Basketball's mini-camp. "The first thing he said at the press conference was that, 'You guys should thank Chandler Parsons because he is a big reason why I am here.'

@DXL@Lambchop Haka I believe Lamb is capable of 15/5/4 type numbers once he gets comfortable and gets 30 minutes. I think hes capable of 45/38/85. I think his ability to distibute the ball and his lack of a Harden like Ceiling makes him a better fit for our offense then Harden woudl, which made us ISO heavy and ball movement came to a stand still. I believe he will allow teh coggery of our team to find more fluidity and open shot.s This is what i think. but hell never get there unless he gets serious minutes and a third to half of those with with KD or Russ on the floor

@DXL@Lambchop Haka I think theyre optimistic and just countering your excessive bloviating. Again, I think soem of your concerns are fair, its just the effort youve put into disproving this is deranged

@DXL@Hasheem To-Beat-Ya@Lasch@rednuht and yet from the sounds of it you dont think he can hit 6 points a night with decent shooting? lol. plus the guys whose production level you want him to be at arent defensive stalwarts in the least

@DXL@Lasch@rednuht again at 30 mins a night. lamb isnt playing 30 mins on this team. prolly get about half. are you saying if lamb averages somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 points a game you wont be on here claiming hes a bust?